26/03/2024
NEWS STORY
Red Bull boss, Christian Horner reflects on his team's first mechanical retirement since Melbourne 2022.
When Carlos Sainz passed Max Verstappen shortly after the start of today's race, few expected that it was anything other than a strategic move by the Dutchman and his team.
However, shortly after smoke could be seen coming from the back of the RB20, and as discussion veered between an engine issue, excess oil or brakes, the three-time world champion slowed and headed back to the pits, the right-rear of his car now on fire.
Verstappen, who had complained of the car feeling "loose" right from the start, subsequently explained that it had been a brake issue.
"The temperature kept on increasing," said the Dutchman. "So it was also basically driving with the handbrake on and that's why already it felt the car was really weird to drive in some corners.
"My right rear brake basically stuck on from when the lights went off, so the temperatures just kept on increasing until the point of course that it caught fire," he explained.
"I had that moment after the first lap, but then already the temperature was increasing and increasing, so it just works like a handbrake. But of course, I didn't know that stuff was happening. It just felt the problem was the car balance was off. The team could see what was going on, but they don't know what caused it."
"We are all one team and that DNF hurts everybody in the same way," said Horner at race end. "It's a matter of learning from it. We've had two years of no mechanical DNFs which has been remarkable.
"It's remarkable after three races that he's still leading the championship even with that DNF," he added.
"We had a lot of good races in a row, a lot of good reliability," acknowledged Verstappen. "And I knew that the day would come that you end up having a retirement and unfortunately that day was today.
"We just had a very good run of two years so that's already quite impressive," he added. "Of course, you never like to see it happen but it's more important now that we understand why. Of course, I'm disappointed with not being able to finish the race because I think we would have had a good shot at winning. The balance felt quite nice on that laps to the grid and I felt confident and like a good improvement compared to what I felt in the long runs that we did in practice. But yeah, some things you can't control."
While Mercedes failed to get both cars to the flag, Horner admitted that there were fears for Sergio Perez after he picked up damage while passing Fernando Alonso.
"He lost a significant amount of downforce from the floor of the car," the Briton revealed. "Then as soon as you get that the tyre degradation gets worse and we were just not good at the end of the stints, which is a bit of an unusual trait for our car."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Melbourne here.